UFC strawweight Pearl Gonzalez made her league debut at UFC 210 under less than ideal circumstances. The New York State Athletic Commission bizarrely waited until after she had weighed in to inform her that she couldn’t fight with breast implants, a personal decision she had no intention of making public. Female fighters with breast implants had fought in New York before; after some difficult hours, the NYSAC reversed itself.
And then Gonzalez lost to Cynthia Calvillo, via Tapout in Round 3.
During a recent appearance on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour Gonzalez detailed a troubled upbringing. When she was 18, her partner, a drug addict, committed a robbery; she was with him and ended up spending nine days in jail.
They wanted me to tell on him and I wouldn’t, said Gonzalez, as transcribed byMarc Raimondi for MMA Fighting. I was that ride-or-die girl at that time. You can’t snitch — no snitches in the hood. Snitches get stitches is what I grew up knowing.
That was probably the lowest point of my life, I think, for me. Because I had so much ambition. I knew that I was meant to do something great. I didn’t know what at that time, but I felt like I was a complete failure. It was a very low spot. But that low place actually brought me back to the gym, brought me back to MMA.
Gonzales began MMA at age 11, but was lured away by the streets.
I was [running with gangs], unfortunately, at 12 years old, she said. That was the only lifestyle I had knew.
The state took Pearl and her younger sister away from her mother who was addicted to drugs, and they were raised by their father. At 17 Pearl moved out but saw her sister, then 15, slipping into a life on streets, so she took her in, working three jobs.
The story has a happy ending. Her sister ended up with a diploma. Her mother got clean and earned a masters degree. Pearl remains close to her father. She is married to a U.S. Navy seaman stationed in San Diego. And of course she is signed with the UFC, and has an incredible backstory.
I needed to go through that, unfortunately, to be the woman I am today, said Gonzalez said. … You just have to work hard and believe in yourself and you can be anything you want to be.
